


Asshân

by Filin prinsessa (ErinacchiLove)



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Erebor Never Fell, Alternate Universe - No One Ring, Alternate Universe - No Smaug, Dwarf Culture & Customs, Dwarf Gender Concepts, F/F, Female Bilbo Baggins/Female Thorin Oakenshield, Female Kíli, Fluff, Hobbit Culture & Customs, Slow Burn, Trans Bilbo Baggins, minimal angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-09 09:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8884897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinacchiLove/pseuds/Filin%20prinsessa
Summary: “It is arranged then, the Crown Princess will marry Bilbo Baggins of the Shire by next Durin’s Day.”The words were still ringing in Thorin’s head as she made her way back to her quarters. It wasn’t as if they had a choice, Erebor needed this alliance with the Shire, but that didn’t stop her from screaming internally.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rutobuka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rutobuka/gifts).



> I've wanted to write this AU for a while now, and getting ruto to write for I knew I had to make it fem!Bagginshield. I love her fem!Bagginshield art, and especially this one piece with trans fem!Bilbo/fem!Thorin impressed me deeply, so it served as inspiration for this fic.
> 
> ruto, thank you for the amazing art, and I hope you like this piece ♥
> 
> This is my first time writing trans fem!Bilbo and I hope my deciption of her isn't offensive. None of the Dwarves misgender her on purpose. Bilbo isn't out as trans yet but she will. Because of this I will tell story from (cisfem) Thorin's point of view.

“It is arranged then, the Crown Princess will marry Bilbo Baggins of the Shire by next Durin’s Day.”

     The words were still ringing in Thorin’s head as she made her way back to her quarters. It wasn’t as if they had a choice, Erebor needed this alliance with the Shire, but that didn’t stop her from screaming internally.

     An arranged marriage. Thorin sighed as she opened the door to her quarters. Of course she had always known it was a likely outcome for her, she just… hadn’t thought it might actually happen, not after Dís had had children and the continuation of the royal family was secured. When some the envoys, Balin among them, had returned from the Shire, Thorin had judged from their grim expressions to expect some very unpleasant terms and conditions for an alliance. Marriage had not been among those expectations.

      Neither her ‘adad or sigin-‘adad had disagreed with the conditions, and Thorin had no idea how to feel about it. If anything, she mostly felt numb. Mahal, she was going to get married in about seven months!

     Thorin had just settled on her bed, ready to bury her face in her pillow, when someone knocked on her door.

     “It’s open!” called Thorin, and sat up as her ‘amad came in. The Lady Sif sat next to her daughter and started to comb her hair as she always did when Thorin had worries.

     Thorin sighed as her ‘amad started to redo her braids. “I suppose you heard what happened at the council meeting.”

     Lady Sif nodded. “Aye, your ‘adad told me, pebble.”

     Thorin rolled her eyes at her old nickname. She hadn’t been a pebble for great many decades, yet Lady Sif insisted on calling her that. In a way, though, it was oddly comforting.

     “How do you feel?”

     “Confused. Numb. Confused a few more times.” Thorin lied down, and Lady Sif huffed about the ruined braids. “Why does it have to be me?”

     “Because we all thought it’d show the Hobbits how serious we are about honouring this allegiance,” put in Thráin, who had come in so quietly that both Thorin and Sif jumped. Thráin sat on Thorin’s other side, rubbing his good eye. “I’m sorry we have to put you through this, Thorin, I truly am.”

     Thorin raised an eyebrow at her ‘adad. “But?”

     Thráin snorted a laugh. Thorin had always been good at deducting when there was going to be a but. “But your sigin-‘adad and I hope you’ll honour this duty and carry it out like the fierce princess you are.”

     Thorin closed her eyes and nodded. There wasn’t anything she could say or do, she could only accept this. She sat back up and looked at her ‘adad. “Do you know anything about him? My fiancé I mean.”

     “Aside from him being a relative of the Thain of the Shire and a respectable Hobbit, I’m sorry but I don’t,” sighed Thráin. “You need to ask Balin, he might know more.”

     “Have you told Dís and Frerin about this?”

     “Aye, ‘adad is telling them as we speak,” answered Thráin. “Fíli and Kíli already know, they were eavesdropping us.”

     Somehow that didn’t surprise Thorin at all. Her sister-children tended to stick their noses where they shouldn’t, much like she had with Frerin and Dís at their age.

     “What did they think about it?” asked Thorin.

     Thráin shrugged. “They didn’t say much, aside from that they want you to know that they’re here for you.”

     Thorin made a mental note to hug Fíli and Kíli next time she saw them. She sat in silence for a while, until she thought of something important. “Will I have the time to make the necessary courting gifts?”

     This made both Thráin and Sif smile.

     “I should think so,” answered Sif. “Your fiancé and his escorts won’t be here until next month, so you should be able to make whatever it is you want to gift him on time.”

     Thorin let out a relieved sigh. She hated when she had to rush her work. In a month she could easily finish a silver brooch and possibly make a scarf or something out of her old embroidery works. It was too late to begin any new embroidery works, even the smallest ones took many weeks to finish because Thorin rarely had time to focus only on them. Being the Crown Princess meant that she had to participate in council meetings and what she playfully called “queen lessons” with sigin-‘adad, so she didn’t have a lot of time for herself.

     “That reminds me,” said Thráin, “that ‘adad asked me to tell you that you two won’t be having your usual queen lessons for a while. I think he also remembered that you need to make some courting gifts.”

     That sounded about right; King Thrór may have been old, but he was not stupid. And now that Thorin thought about it, his marriage had also been arranged, so he knew what she would go through. And just like that she felt much better about her duty. At least someone knew how she’d feel.

     “We will leave you now,” said Sif, got up from the bed, and motioned her husband to do the same. “If you need anything, we’ll be in our quarters. I’ll make sure my garden will be ready to receive a Hobbit. They love gardens.”

      Oh, thank Mahal ‘amad was from the Blue Mountains. It was close enough to the Shire, and the Dwarves who dwelled there sometimes traded with the Hobbits, so Lady Sif knew at least something about them.

     After her parents had left, Thorin too got up from her bed and started to go through her old embroidery works and tried to think what to make of them. A scarf seemed like a good idea, or perhaps a blanket. Winters were cold in Erebor, so a beautiful and warm blanket might just suit a Hobbit from a warm land. Right then, a blanket it was. Thorin emptied the basket that contained her works on her bed and started to fit the fabrics together to see which of them worked together the best.

     So maybe this was not what she had imagined for herself, Thorin thought, but she was not going to just whine about it for the rest of her life. She was a princess, and if this was what she had to do for her kingdom, so be it. Besides, now that she thought of it, her life wouldn’t even change that much. She’d still get to live in Erebor and she’d be Queen one day. The Hobbit she’d marry, Bilbo Baggins, was facing a far more drastic change, moving from across the Middle-Earth to live among Dwarves.

     Thorin fitted two pieces of fabric together, decided that they looked good together, and put them along in the pile that was about to become a blanket. The least she could do for Bilbo Baggins was to make sure he was somewhat comfortable and try to get along with him. It’d be easier for both of them like that.

     Thorin worked in silence for what felt like hours, until she was interrupted by a knock. She let out a huff. It couldn’t be her parents because they had just promised they wouldn’t disturb her, so it was either one of her siblings or her sister-children. She put down the pieces of cloth she was holding and went to open the door.

     Dís and Frerin barged in without as much as a hello, followed by Víli, who was smiling sheepishly, and Fíli and Kíli who greeted Thorin and patted her arm.

     “Goodness, a migration,” said Thorin to herself. “To what I own this sudden honour?”

     “You didn’t come for dinner so we started to worry,” answered Dís. “Also we want to hear everything about what happened today. Sigin-‘adad wasn’t clear at all.”

     Thorin rolled her eyes at her younger sister. “I should imagine so, considering that even _I_ don’t know much.”

     “Are you going to go through the full courting period?” asked Víli.

     Thorin nodded. “We are to be wed on Durin’s Day, and he should arrive next month, so that would give us the six months for courting.”

     Kíli tilted her head a bit. “How do you feel?”

     Thorin would’ve snapped at anyone else, but not her sister-children. She smiled a bit at Kíli and said, “Better now that I’ve had time to accept it. This was unexpected, but I’m going to face it with my head held high.”

     Thorin wasn’t sure whether she said that to convince her family or herself. Either way, Dís and Frerin hugged her and assured her that they’d be there for her the whole time.

     “That reminds me, please don’t pull pranks on my fiancé,” Thorin requested. “This is hard enough for him as it is.”

     Frerin and Dís gaped at her.

     “Who are you and what have you done to my older sister?” Frerin snorted a laugh. “When did you become so understanding? And yet when I want to slide down the stairs while standing on a shield, you scream as if you were on fire!”

     Thorin hit Frerin’s arm gently. “You could end up hurting yourself!”

    

* * *

 

One month went past faster than Thorin had imagined, and yet she had managed to finish both of her courting gifts. She would make more as the courting period went by, but it was a custom to have at least one gift ready at the beginning of a courtship. The silver brooch was very simple; it had the Durin raven motif and it was lined with small sapphires. Thorin was sure it would do, although she had finished it a bit hastily. The blanket looked much better. It was made of several pieces of cloth that all had different embroidery in them. At least her fiancé couldn’t say that she didn’t know how to work with her hands.

     While standing next to her sigin-‘adad’s throne Thorin battled the urge to bite her fingernails. One of the guards had announced that Bilbo Baggins of the Shire had arrived and would be introduced to them after they had taken his belongings to his new quarters. Thorin had ensured that Thrór would give him the quarters next to hers. Thrór had found it unorthodox but had rolled with it. If it made his granddaughter feel better, then he was fine with it.

     Thorin squeezed her hands into fists just as the doors opened and the envoys from the Shire stepped in. Thorin tried to look for anything that didn’t have a beard, but any Hobbits the envoys had were surrounded by guards, and for a good reason. Really, sigin-‘adad should finally put up a railing on the bridge between the door and the throne. That bridge was a hazard to anyone who didn’t have a stone sense.

     When the group reached the throne it started to part and revealed that there were two Hobbits among them, an older and a younger. The younger Hobbit, who had tawny curls, looked straight at Thorin, so she assumed that this was her fiancé. He was actually rather fetching, for someone without a beard. And Thorin could see that while he was nervous, there was a fire in his eyes. Good. Thorin had never wanted a coward for a spouse. If first impressions were anything to go by, Bilbo Baggins seemed just like a person Thorin would be interested in even without the arranged marriage.

     Thrór got up and had a surprisingly warm smile, Thorin noted. “Welcome to Erebor,” he greeted the Hobbits. “I hope the journey went well.”

     “It did, thank you,” answered the older Hobbit. “I’m Fortinbras Took, the Thain of the Shire, and this is my cousin, Bilbo Baggins. Thank you for having us.”

     “The pleasure is ours,” said Thrór. “May I present my granddaughter, the Crown Princess Thorin?”

     Thorin almost missed her cue to step forward. She was sure she had the most awkward smile on her face when she did a mixture of a bow and a curtsy.

     “At your service, Master Baggins,” she said to Bilbo. “I hope… I hope we will get along, not just for the sake of the alliance, but also for the sake of our union.”

     Thorin wasn’t sure if Bilbo was taken aback by her awkwardness or her words, but he too stumbled with his words a bit. “I… ahem, I hope so too, my lady.”

     Thorin raised a hand. “Please, just call me Thorin, it makes things easier for us both.”

     Judging from the similar surprised expressions Thorin knew that Bilbo and Fortinbras had expected this first meeting to be very stiff and formal. Well, she hoped she had made a good first impression by toning down the formality. Besides, she had never liked the idea of her spouse being very formal around her and calling her “my lady” or “your highness”, and after the initial surprise, Bilbo seemed very pleased about it too.

     There was hope for this union and the gnawing dread in Thorin’s gut started to go away. She was now sure that she could have a good marriage after all.

     Thorin was assigned with Thráin to escort Bilbo and Fortinbras back to their quarters, and Thráin was more talkative than usual. He and Fortinbras walked ahead, talking about this and that, while Thorin and Bilbo walked behind them in total silence. Thorin had no idea what to say anymore, she had never been one for small talk.

     Bilbo cleared his throat. “Do you happen to have a library anywhere nearby?”

     Well… that was unexpected. “Aye,” answered Thorin after she had blinked a couple of times. “Your quarters have adequate bookshelves, but there is a big library near the throne room. I could take you there tomorrow, I expect you are rather tired after the long journey here and wish to rest.”

     “Nonsense, we’re both excited to be here!” interrupted Fortinbras just as Bilbo was about to say something. “Aren’t we, Bilbo?”

     Bilbo rolled his eyes. “Oh yes, I’m just as excited as a fish is before it gets stuck in a hook.”

     Thorin had to admire that sarcasm. It reminded of her sigin-‘amad, Mahal bless her, and it was clearly something Bilbo had mastered during many years.

     Fortinbras huffed. “Don’t be rude.”

     “No, I understand,” Thorin put in. “I’m not particularly thrilled about this either.”

     Bilbo was still scowling a bit when Thorin and Thráin left him and Fortinbras alone in their quarters. Thorin closed her eyes and let out a sigh when they closed the door.

     Thráin patted her shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I think you were marvellous.”

     “You’re my ‘adad, you’re supposed to say that.” Thorin managed a smile. “Thank you.”

     “Don’t worry, pebble, this is just the first day. Everything will look brighter tomorrow.”

     Oh, Thorin sure hoped so.

**Author's Note:**

> Khuzdul translations:  
> Asshân = marriage (yes I'm very imaginative lmao)  
> 'adad = father  
> sigin-'adad = grandfather  
> 'amad = mother
> 
> pebble = a pet name usually given for Dwarflings, this has been floating around Tumblr for a while and I thought it was cute
> 
> This was supposed to be a one-shot, but I ran out of time, so I'm separating this into four or so chapters. I'll try to update as soon as I can.


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